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When Giampaolo Pazzini signed for Inter in January 2011 he was in the middle of a storming season that saw him scoring a fantastic 12 goals in 25 appearences while partnering Antonio Cassano at Sampdoria. After joining the Nerazzurri his form continued and by scoring an additional 11 goals in 20 appearances he was one of the best players in Leonardo’s Inter squad that managed to salvage second place from what started as a bad season under Rafa Benitez. What more could you want from a striker? Many even tipped him to become one of the top goalscorers in Serie A in the following season.

Like this:

For a long time now there has been a lot of talk about a rebuilding process at Inter. Taking out the older veteran players and bringing in fresh young talent who would bring success to Inter in the years to come. Also while doing this cutting down the mountain of wages Inter were paying out and bringing in players on lower wages but who were of equal quality and could bring success in the future. However we are still talking about that to this day and I’m now wondering is this process of rebuilding actually going to happen? After numerous poor mercato’s and ridiculous transfer dealings it is almost as if we are going backwards and not forwards.

Poor Transfer Dealing’s

Part of the problem is the poor transfer dealing’s of Inter in the last few years. One simple problem is that we let go of players of high quality and bring in average players who are simply not good enough to fill the void left by the previous player. Transfers such as Diego Forlan who was brought in to replace Samuel Eto’o who had just had a fantastic season Scoring 37 goals and contributing 15 assists in all competitions. On top of this fantastic record he was our most influential player that season and he dragged us through many games in which we were struggling. Then for some baffling reason we decide to sell him and bring in Diego Forlan who was coming towards the end of his career and his best years were passed him. Also when looking for a replacement we should have been looking for a younger replacement who could play for many years to come and was of similar quality. We can’t expect to compete at the top-level when we sell our best players and replace them with mediocrity.

First offer for Debucy to form new wings with Kolarov. Here is the 5 milion for the French but Lille want more.

Destro, Giovinco, and Silvestre: to be decided.

Milan – Things are on the move. The outgoing transfer market of Inter is about to take off. After having collected 8 million from the outright sale of Goran Pandev to Napoli, the Nerazzurri would increase their money coffer with Maicon and Castaignos. But in the plans of Moratti, Branca and Ausilio is the will to lower the mountain of salaries, with relative to the revolution of the team, would lead to other big departures. Some certain departures are that of Forlan and Lucio but also Julio Cesar, Pazzini and Sneijder, those that are with uncertain future.Read the rest of this entry →

The domino effect: the Brazilian and striker leave if Inter reach their transfer objectives.

What the transfer market is saying is this: Inter are making strong inquiries, they are looking around and they have the direct counterparts. Maicon, Julio Cesar, Pazzini to Debuchy, Handanovic and Destro. Where will JC go? And if Mattia comes, Pazzo cannot stay… The Inter puzzle at this moment is complicated: perhaps nothing will happen, or perhaps half of a revolution.

Handanovic and Cou Two months ago, the first rumor came and the meeting last week was confirmed: Inter seem to have decided that the Slovenian Handanovic is the right man between the goal posts. One of the reasons is that the current Udinese goalkeeper would make less than half of what Julio Cesar is making because Inter, in addition to rejuvenate the team, want to cut down the mountain of wages. From here, saying that the deal is done is way off because Udinese want Coutinho on the plate (at least half of him), and Inter will have to think about it very carefully. Besides that, they still have to talk to Julio Cesar.

Destro and Longo Meanwhile yesterday Inter (which met with Catania for Gomez and Brescia for the renewal of co-ownership of Tassi) received this news: Siena and Genoa have found an agreement for Destro with the Bianconeri will not exercise their right to purchase a half which will leave the player to the Rossoblu in exchange for a counterpart to be identified. This is the first step towards Destro: next week Branca will meet with Preziosi to also talk about Longo, one that Inter want the full ownership of.

All I can say is wow what a fantastic game! The Derby Della Madoninna is always an exciting and tense game between two of world football’s superpowers in the city that is known around the world as the capital of football but this one carried importance on so many levels. For Inter it was must win to stay in the chase for an European place, for Milan it was must win to take the title race with Juventus to the last day and for both clubs, as always, it was to determine who would have the bragging rights across the city of Milano and also the world.

The game didn’t disappoint either with six goals, three penalties, tension, passion and most importantly a derby double for the mighty Nerazzurri! This game will go down in football history as one of, if not THE greatest derby ever!

The week 36 game against Parma at the Stadio Ennio Tardini not only marks Andrea Stramaccioni’s first loss in charge of Inter but also brings to an end any hope of the Nerazzurri qualifying for next seasons Champions League. To be honest this was probably inevitable considering the form we’ve been in this season, we should just be thankful that we will be finishing in the top third of the table and hang on to the belief that we can claim a consolation of qualifying for the Europa League.

Despite this loss I still hold great faith in Stramaccioni’s ability to lead Inter and he should not be held responsible for this result, lets face it even Mourinho has lost matches he shouldn’t have in his time and so the responsibility for this loss sits firmly with the players and the defence in particular. I’m getting bored with saying this now as us Interisti identified the defensive line as our weak point at the start of the season yet nearly a year later we are still relying on Lucio and Walter Samuel to thwart the oppositions attacks, as shown in the last few weeks if there’s only one of them on the pitch alongside Andrea Ranocchia then it works enough for us to get the result but more and more commonly when both our aging central defenders are playing together we leak goals like a bucket with a hole in it leaks water. Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying Ranocchia is perfect but at the moment him or Cristian Chivu are adding a bit of much-needed security to our backline that Lucio and Samuel cannot offer anymore.

On a sunny and pleasant Sunday afternoon in Milan, Inter scored two and conceded one as Cesena lost the battle on the Giuseppe Meazza. After having won in Udine in the mid-week fixture, the highly desirable third place in the Serie A was still reachable for Inter as Lazio surprisingly lost away to Novara. Before Sunday’s game, the Nerazzurri were on a string of five consecutive games without losing. A string of games that began when the up-and-coming Andrea Stramaccioni took over as the replacement for Claudio Ranieri on the Inter bench. Following the 2-2 draw in Rome between AS Roma and Napoli in the Saturday night fixture, Inter were fifth with 52 points earned, while Napoli were fourth with 55 points after 35 games – on the same tally as third placed Lazio, who played Udinese on Sunday night.

After what could only be described as a disappointing draw last Saturday against Cagliari, Inter were back on the pitch just four days later, this time back on home turf of the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza and with only seven matches left this season everyone from Andrea Stramaccioni to the squad and the fans knew that to stand any chance of performing miracles and securing the targeted third place Champions League spot we had to secure a win.

The Nerazzurri didn’t disappoint, making it two out of three wins for Stramaccioni on the day our captain Javier Zanetti matched Dino Zoff as the third player with the most Serie A appearances with 570 with only former Inter goalkeeper Gianluca Pagliuca (592) and AC Milan’s Paolo Maldini (647) appearing more times than him, both of which are now retired.

Inter’s week 29 2011/12 Serie A match away for the first time at the new Juventus stadium didn’t end as I was hoping it would. Even though I knew our chances in this match were slim at best, considering the difference in form this season between the Bianconeri and the Nerazzurri, I still held on to that faint glimmer of hope that Inter could be the first team this season to hand our old enemy a defeat.
Of course that was asking too much of Claudio Ranieri and our aged team and even though we didn’t manage to beat them we did put up a good fight and make them work hard for their win.
Ranieri opted for his 4-4-2 formation for the game with just two changes from the squad that flopped against Atalanta last week, bringing in Dejan Stankovic in place of Esteban Cambiasso and Diego Forlan partnering Diego Milito instead of Giampaolo Pazzini. New boy Fredy Guarin made another step towards his debut and was picked to sit on the bench as one of the back up brigade.Read the rest of this entry →

After Inter’s superb win against Chievo last Friday evening and with Marseille losing yet again in their own league the stage was set for the Nerazzurri to turn around the 1-0 first leg defeat. The plan was to show the French side the strength and resolve that Inter has to turn around results like these in front of a packed Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, using the same lineup that produced a winning display in Verona Claudio Ranieri expected his squad to come out fighting and take the game to the visitors.

The reality though was that from the kickoff Marseille looked as though they weren’t happy to just defend their one goal aggregate lead and wanted the away goal to sure up their position ahead of Inter. Less than ten minutes in to the game it looked like Inter would level things off as captain Javier Zanetti took the ball in to the box cutting it back for Wesley Sneijder who just had to chip it in to a fairly open net but instead he hit it low straight in to the goalkeepers body much to the surprise of everyone watching the match.